Neuropathic pain is caused by lesion or inflammation of the nervous system and characterized by the symptoms of allodynia, hyperalgesia and spontaneous pain. SIRT1 (Sir2) is a NAD-dependent deacetylase and is reported to regulate a wide variety of cellular processes including inflammation, aging and lifespan extension. Nevertheless, the role of SIRT1 in neuropathic pain is not fully understood....

BACKGROUND This study was designed to assess the postoperative analgesic effect of low-dose intrathecal morphine after scoliosis surgery in children. METHODS Thirty children, 9-19 yr of age, scheduled for spinal fusion, were randomly allocated into three groups to receive a single dose of 0 (saline injection), 2, or 5 microg/kg intrathecal morphine. After surgery, a patient-controlled analges...

BACKGROUND Intrathecal administration of antibiotics has potentially high effectiveness for the treatment for severe intracranial infections, particularly nosocomial meningitis. The use of intrathecal injection of antibiotics has been reported mostly in case reports. However, there is sparse data regarding the pharmacokinetics of antibiotics after intrathecal administration. AIM This study in...

BACKGROUND The introduction of intrathecal opioid administration for intractable chronic non-malignant pain and cancer pain is considered as one of the most important breakthroughs in pain management. Morphine, the only opioid approved by FDA for intrathecal administration, has been increasingly utilized for this purpose. For over 3 decades, there have been numerous reports on the non-nocicepti...

Objective. Intrathecal opioid/local anesthetic mixtures are a popular alternative in contemporary treatment of chronic nonmalignant pain. Unfortunately, its use is based solely on retrospective studies or anecdotal reports. Materials and Methods. A double blind, randomized, crossover, multicenter study was performed in 24 patients with intrathecal pumps. For four consecutive months, their pumps...

The intrathecal drug delivery system (ITDDS), an effective treatment tool for intractable spasticity and pain, is associated with various complications but breakage of the catheter is rare. We report the case of a 50-yr-old man with ITDDS, in whom an intrathecal catheter was severed, resulting in a 28.6-cm-long intrathecal fragment. The catheter completely retracted into the intrathecal space f...

OBJECTIVE Inadequate postoperative pain relief after cesarean section can increase complications. In this study, we evaluated the effect of intrathecal betamethasone as an adjunct to bupivacaine on postoperative pain in patients undergoing cesarean section. METHODOLOGY Ninety-nine patients undergoing cesarean section were assigned to one of three groups. Group 1 (Control) patients received in...

Intrathecal synthesis of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) antibodies (Abs) represents conclusive evidence of a specific immune response in the central nervous system of HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients. Western blotting (WB) for HTLV Abs in serum is a confirmatory test for HTLV-1 infection. The aim of this study was to standardise the Wester...

The present experiments examined the role of spinal proinflammatory cytokines [interleukin-1beta (IL-1)] and chemokines (fractalkine) in acute analgesia and in the development of analgesic tolerance, thermal hyperalgesia, and tactile allodynia in response to chronic intrathecal morphine. Chronic (5 d), but not acute (1 d), intrathecal morphine was associated with a rapid increase in proinflamma...

Spinal intrathecal injections of the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory analgesics (NSAIAs) indomethacin and acetylsalicylic acid, which inhibit prostaglandin synthesis, cause dose-dependent hypoalgesia in the rat. Intrathecal injections of prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) produce dose-dependent hyperalgesia. To determine whether this action of prostaglandins on the central nervous system is mediated through...